I don't know that I've ever been somewhere not even listed in the major guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Rough Guide) but Dibrugarh, in the northeast of the state of Assam, close to Myanmar, is just that place. In trying to come up with options for a five day weekend (Tuesday was Independence Day and Wednesday was Lord Krishna's birthday) my travel agent suggested it and it sounded lovely. We stayed at a 160 year old tea estate manager's bungalow called Mancotta Chang Bungalow. Chang is the type of house, built on stilts to make boarding your elephant easier and to avoid flooding and animal attacks. It's a reminant of the British Raj and was sold to an Indian family after Independence (1947).
Since we had no idea what to expect, it was a pleasant surprise. We were the only guests (they like it like that) so we had several terraces, living rooms, dining rooms etc. at our disposal. On our first day we toured the tea plantation (picture on left). It takes many more steps than I ever realized to turn the leaves into tea (I guess I always thought you just dried them!). Picture below is of one of the centrfuges that dries and sorts the clumps out. Woman pluck the leaves and wear these enormous sombrero-like hats to protect them from heat and rain, while the men spray the pesticides and do the factory work. It's a family plantation so if you're a plucker, your daughter will likely be a plucker. We were there over Independence Day, for which the Assam separatist group ULFA called a bandh (strike) so since we couldn't go out on the streets we walked around the tea plantation on that day, including the worker's villange. Obviously the work is tough and their lives are difficult but they have lovely thatch/brick houses and yards, provided by the plantation (as are food rations, education and health care). Very lush looking with palms, bamboo and stunning flowers. But I digress.In the afternoon of the first day (Sunday) we visited some silk weavers who make Mekhela
chaddar (the local dress, like a 2-piece sari) and hired a boat, which had clearly seen better days, to go down the Brahmaputra. A picture of myself, Liz and Dana on the boat is below. It's an enormous river (the only male river in India) which starts in Tibet and runs through Bangladesh, with the world's largest river island and dolphins! It's the height of monsoons right now, and we were only a few hundred miles from the wettest place on earth, but they had gone 30 days without rain so the banks and islands looked dry. Stupid global warming.That evening we had dinner with the owners of the plantation, Vinita and Manoj Jalan. They offered us a complimentary ride on their amazing thoroughbreds through the estate but apparently I don't know how to ride horses, so I passed (Liz and Dana went).
The next day we visited a Tai Phake (I think Tai refers to Chinese roots not Thai) buddhist village. The drive was about an hour and a half from the bungalow past lush rice fields, endless tea estates and some small villages - it was quite beautiful and despite the lack of rain, quite wet. The Tai Phake are one of four types of buddhists who came from the same originally family centuries ago. They took refuge first in Myanmar for a century or so and then came to Assam. They now number maybe 10,000. We sat and spoke to two monks, we had a wonderful guide from the bungalow, Deep, who translated but fortunately the monks like most of the Assamese spoke hindi. We admired their ancient books (written on handmade paper bound with fabric) and as we left they gave us each prayer flags made by villagers. We then all (with the monks) visited a "typical" Tai Phake family who lived in a Chang-style house made entirely of palm and bamboo (picture is of that house). The man worked in the rice paddies while the women were weavers. The monks hung with us during 
lunch (they fast after noon) and chatted on their cell phones. They, as is common to all the monks I've encountered, were incredibly calm, learned, funny and kind. It was a joy.Overall, Assam was both what I expected and not what I expected - India is still the land of contradictions. It was more indian than I expected, both in ethnicity and architecture. It was wondefully peaceful and quiet and lush and gorgeous. There were apparently some incidents in town during the bandh but for us it just forced us to relax for a day. The fact that there is little
tourism is wonderful but means we really had to plan - we couldn't go to the State Park/animal reserve because the guy running it isn't always available on short notice to let us in?!? But all in all a wonderful chance to see yet another side of India - and it leaves me wanting more!The last picture is just a kid playing the universal game of spin the tire while running!
